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Install and Play The Witcher 3 Complete Edition (GOG & GOG Galaxy) on Ubuntu Linux 20.04 with Lutris.net and Wine
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Witcher_3_Linux_Easy_README.md

How to install and play The Witcher 3 (GOG Edition) on Linux

It's really quite simple!

Step 1: Buy The Witcher 3 on gog.com

Simply go to https://www.gog.com/game/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_game_of_the_year_edition (this should also work with the regular edition) and buy and add the game to your library.

Do NOT click "Download and Install" at this point. We will do this through Lutris.

Step 2: Setup Lutris

Visit https://lutris.net/downloads/ and follow the instructions for getting Lutris installed on your system. This is likely as simple as running some terminal commands (getting the PPA, then update & install).

For Debian/Ubuntu based distros, this should be as simple as, opening a terminal with ctrl alt t and then running:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wine lutris

(I tacked on wine to the above install command to install wine too, just in case dependencies are needed)

Step 3: Import game

In Lutris, you "import games" from your accounts such as steam, gog, humblebundle and etc. This means it downloads directly and installs from those sources (you do not need to download it manually beforehand).

  • Open a Terminal with ctrl alt t
  • Run lutris &
  • Click the Plus (+) icon and choose Import Games...

Screenshot from 2020-09-12 11-09-25

  • On the left side choose gog.com and then login to gog via the prompts. It also might already be logged in if it could read your browser cookies.
  • Now it should load in the games you have purchased on gog.com
  • Check the box next to The Witcher 3
  • Click Import games

Screenshot from 2020-09-12 11-09-40

  • The rest of the prompts should be mostly automatic. It might ask you what folder to install it to, just leave default or choose it yourself

Screenshot from 2020-09-12 12-43-22

Screenshot from 2020-09-12 12-52-54

After it finishes installing it will give you the option to Launch and play now. You can do that if you want, or simply exit. If you exit now, you can tweak more options by right-clicking the entry. Or just double-click to play it. See comments at the bottom for more tips.

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Witcher_3_Linux_Manual_README.md

How to install and play The Witcher 3 (GOG Edition) on Linux

Manual mode - this requires more steps than the above

This guide was written and tested using Ubuntu 20.04 with an Nvidia GTX 1070 card. It explains how to install and play The Witcher 3 through Lutris.net (which is both a website and an application).

Step 1: Buy The Witcher 3 on gog.com

Simply go to https://www.gog.com/game/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_game_of_the_year_edition (this should also work with the regular edition) and buy and add the game to your library.

Then, download the bundled gog galaxy installer (under 500 KB).

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-50-22

Step 2: Setup Lutris

Visit https://lutris.net/downloads/ and follow the instructions for getting Lutris installed on your system. This is likely as simple as running some terminal commands (getting the PPA, then update & install).

For Debian/Ubuntu based distros, this should be as simple as, opening a terminal with ctrl alt t and then running:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lutris-team/lutris
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wine lutris

(I tacked on wine to the above install command to install wine too, just in case dependencies are needed)

Step 3: Configure Lutris

  • Open a Terminal with ctrl alt t
  • Run lutris & (I like running it from terminal since it lets you see log messages about what is going on behind-the-scenes. If you don't want that you may simply run it from your system menu, e.g. Windows/Super key)
  • Click the gear icon next to Runners on the left hand side bar:

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-34-36

  • Scroll down to Wine (Runs Windows games) and click the Wrench icon (Manage Versions):

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-34-57

  • Scroll to the top and check the box next to lutris-5.7-10. This will download that wine version:

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-35-06

  • Close the two windows to get back to the main Lutris screen

Step 4: Begin installation process for the game

  • Click the Plus (+) sign, choose Add Game...

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 23-23-42

  • Configure the Game Info tab:
    • Name: The Witcher 3 (GOG Galaxy)
    • Runner: Choose Wine (Runs Windows games)
    • Release Year: 2015

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-36-48

  • Configure the Game options tab:
    • Executable: Click Browse and find the GOG_Galaxy_The_Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt_-_Game_of_the_Year_Edition.exe from your Downloads folder or wherever it is
    • Wine prefix: Browse for a folder of your choice (you should create a new folder) such as ~/Games/Witcher3. This is where gog galaxy and all the game data will be installed to.
    • Prefix Architecture: Choose 64 bit

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-38-30

  • Configure the Runner options tab:
    • Choose the wine version: lutris-5.7-10-x86_64 or a different one if you desire
    • Enable DVXK/VKD3D
    • Choose DXVK version 1.7.1L-743f309 or similar one

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 21-12-15

  • Leave other options as default

  • Configure the System options tab:

    • Leave all these as default for now

  • Click Save. We're now ready to start installing the game!

  • Double click The Witcher 3 GOG in the list, or right-click and choose Play

  • Some dialogs may pop up requesting to install packages such as .NET or Microsoft C++.

    • Click OK or Install when this occurs

  • After a little while you should see the GOG Galaxy sign in box

  • Sign in with your email and password

  • Note: A small window with the GOG Galaxy windows tray icon will pop up. You can move this aside for now.

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-42-46

  • At this point, it should immediately pop up the install Witcher 3 window.

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-42-52

  • Leave fields as default, except turn off automatic updates.
  • Click Install
  • The game will begin downloading and installing

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 20-44-05

  • You may check the progress at the top of the window
  • After it downloads and finishes installing it will say Play, but don't click this yet.
  • Exit fully out of GOG Galaxy and also right click the tray icon and exit
  • Check that nothing GOG or Witcher is running
    • One simple way to do this is at the terminal: ps aux | grep -i [w]itcher and ps aux | grep -i [g]og and confirm nothing shows up
    • If any of those is still running you may kill it with kill <process_id> or use the system monitor

Step 5: Tweak Lutris entry to only run The Witcher 3 exe

  • Now you should be back in Lutris, right click on The Witcher 3 GOG and choose Configure.
  • (Optional) Configure the Banner image and Icon image for the game. For me I used a Witcher wallpaper for the banner (left) and /home/michael/Games/Witcher3/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/GOG Galaxy/Games/The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt GOTY/goggame-1495134320.ico for the icon (right). This is totally optional, up to you

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 22-47-15

  • Configure Game options tab:
    • For Executable, click Browse and go to your ~/Games/Witcher3 folder, and you'll see a drive_c folder. Navigate through the folders until you end up with something like this: /home/michael/Games/Witcher3/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/GOG Galaxy/Games/The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt GOTY/bin/x64/witcher3.exe select it and hit OK.

Screenshot from 2020-09-10 22-47-38

  • Hit Save you're done!
  • Double click The Witcher 3 GOG or right-click and press Play to launch the game directly!
  • The Witcher 3 should start up, be patient as it needs to compile some assets behind the scenes (called vulkan shaders) the first time you launch it

Step 6: Playing the game

  • The game should naturally recognize your gamepads if you have them plugged in. I had an Xbox 360 compatible controller and it worked fine
  • I recommend if you want to play on a lower resolution than your desktop, set that resolution FIRST in your system preferences before launching the game
  • Enjoy playing!
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michaelbutler commented Sep 11, 2020 •
edited

Bonus Tips:

Some additional stuff you can do with Lutris:

Auto-change and restore screen resolution

  • Right-click the game in Lutris and hit Configure.
  • Go to System options Tab
  • Under Switch resolution to you can tell Lutris to change your screen resolution automatically prior to launching the game!
  • Now check the box/switch above that says Restore resolution on game exit -- Lutris will auto change back when the game exits!

Get the game to run faster

  • Not sure if everyone will have this experience, but for me, after tweaking the game's settings and playing the game for about 15-20 minutes for the very first time, I exited it, and re-launched it, and I got a MUCH higher framerate the second time around!
  • So, if your performance is a bit slow when you first launch, try exiting and relaunching. This might have something to do with the Vulkan caches.

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